1990 NC State at Georgia Tech Men's Basketball

Alexander Memorial Colliseum

Atlanta, GA

Jan 13, 1990

North Carolina Wolfpack at Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Both teams got off to good starts but had only just started playing against other schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference. North Carolina State was 12-2 (1-0 ACC) and was ranked 17th nationally. They had been ranked since the beginning of the season and they had two wins against ranked teams: 18th ranked Pittsburgh and 15th ranked St. John's. Georgia Tech was 10-1 (1-1 ACC) and was ranked 9th nationally. Georgia Tech was still rising. It had one win against ranked opponents: 18th ranked Pittsburgh. Tech's only loss was to Duke that was ranked 10th nationally at the time. The two teams played Pittsburgh within days of one another. Georgia Tech's game was part of that year's ACC-Big East Challenge but NC State's was not.

NC State scored the first 4 points of the game, fairly quickly but by the first TV time out Georgia Tech had the lead and the score was 8-10. Tech stretched out the lead and scored three times as many points as the Wolfpack between the first two TV timeouts of the half at which point score was 11-19. The Yellow Jackets managed to add just a bit more to their lead by third TV timeout when the score was 21-31. The story didn't change much leading up to the final TV time out of the 1st half. Tech still was in the lead and the score was 28-41. The biggest development in that stretch of the game was senior Bryan Oliver, Tech's leading scorer at that point, injuring his ankle and taking a seat on the bench. Something changed in the last few minutes of the half as NC State outscored Georgia Tech 13-4. The Yellow Jackets still had the lead at the half but the score was now 41-45.

Bryan Oliver was back at the beginning of the second half. NC State was unable to continue to dominate the scoring as they did at the end of the first half. They were outscored 6-2 early in the second half. NC State came back and after both teams called timeouts they eventually tied the game up at 53-53. Tech did not give up and in the next few minutes the Yellow Jackets outscore the Wolfpack 12-4 bringing the score to 57-65 in Tech's favor. NC State tried but Georgia Tech seemed to find a way to score, no matter how hard the Wolfpack defense made it for them. Tech made a lot of baskets that did not look easy to make. The Yellow Jackets also shot considerably more free throws than the Wolfpack did. The final score (85-92) made the game look closer than it actually was.

After the first few minutes of the second half there was no time that it really felt like NC State had a shot at winning. The quality of the recording was good but this wasn't a great game.